Following the successful validation, the certificate was officially presented on 23 November to Messe Frankfurt President and CEO Wolfgang Marzin by Melanie Nolte, Vice President of the Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce. As Wolfgang Marzin emphasised: “Last year, Messe Frankfurt decided of its own accord to introduce an environmental management system in accordance with the EMAS Regulation. This means that we now have an internationally recognised instrument with which we can optimise our ecological sustainability target architecture and demonstrate our progress in a consistently transparent and measurable way. In this way, we can take the next verifiable steps to reaching our ambitious environment-related corporate objectives by 2040 and can usher in the transformation towards a sustainable trade fair sector.” Melanie Nolte: “The Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce has been accompanying companies through the EMAS certification process for many years. We are particularly delighted that a renowned company like Messe Frankfurt, which has always played such a central role in Frankfurt life, has now been awarded this environmental certificate and is demonstrating its future viability to impressive effect."
The environmental management system applies to Messe Frankfurt GmbH together with Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH, Messe Frankfurt Venue GmbH and the company’s subsidiaries Messe Frankfurt Medien und Service GmbH and Accente Gastronomie Service GmbH, all of which are based on the Frankfurt exhibition grounds.
This environmental management system (EMAS), which was developed by the European Union, is geared towards companies that continually improve their environmental performance on their own initiative. Companies that adopt the EMAS environmental management system commit to recording all environmental aspects of the company and conforming with all environmental laws. To meet these requirements, Messe Frankfurt drew up an environmental policy and set ambitious environmental targets. These are included in Messe Frankfurt’s binding ecological target to be climate-neutral at its Frankfurt base by 2040 at the latest. The company sees this as attaining greenhouse gas neutrality and establishing a sustainable water management system. The transformation process includes all Messe Frankfurt companies at its Frankfurt base.
The aim is to develop long-term measures for the ecological, social and economic dimensions. To this end, Messe Frankfurt has created a sustainability target architecture that not only includes long-term targets but also short- and medium-term milestones.
Working towards a sustainable event business
As one of the world’s leading organisers of trade fairs, congresses and events with their own exhibition grounds, Messe Frankfurt is a driving force for climate protection and a sustainable event business. In recognition of its efforts to create a sustainable event business, Messe Frankfurt has received the AEO Excellence Award 2023 in the Best Sustainability Initiative category. In 2022, the company participated in an ESG rating (Environmental, Social and Governance) for the first time and was awarded a bronze medal. The Group underlines its sustainable business practices with a series of voluntary commitments, such as the United Nations Global Compact, the Charter of Diversity and the fairpflichtet sustainability code. As well as supporting the sustainability initiatives of sector associations AUMA and UFI, Messe Frankfurt has signed the Net Zero Carbon Events Pledge.